Letter 162: Part of the papal correspondence surrounding the Acacian Schism (484-519), the major breach between Rome and...

We duly render thanks to the divine mercy, which has not suffered your faith to labor for long. For the time has been offered in which the Catholic Church may recover its faithful soldiers. For what greater joy can possess your spirit than the remembrance of evils now dispelled? Compensate with present joys the hardships of affliction: because our God, who was your remedy, did not wish your love to be crushed by adversity, but tested. For if you weigh the evils of the past time against the present recompense, which is without doubt divine, who doubts that you have obtained greater rewards than adversity could have harmed? And although our concern for the state of the Catholic faith has never ceased, yet, stirred by the sacred communications of the most serene prince, we have taken care to dispatch legates, through whose office, with God as author, we do not doubt that an effect will follow in those matters which we have often commanded. And therefore strive fittingly, so that you may be able to offer to the Catholic Church this special gift of your liberation: that, with all things that have hitherto been harmful repelled, rejoicing in the one communion which we have always desired, we may be able to give praise to our God without ceasing.

(a.5i9m. Hormisdae papae ad Theodosium arcliidiacoiium et universos ecclesiae Gonstautiuopolitanae catholicos. Quod ah haereticorum molestiis liherati sint gratulatur, seque legaios destinasse indicat, quo possit perfecta Ecclesiae concordia componi, Hormisda Theodosio archidiacono Constantinopo- litano et universis catholicis a pari. Gratias misericordiae divinae competenter exsolvimus, quae fidem vestram diu laborare non passa est. Nam tempus oblatum est, quo fidos*) milites suos catholica recuperare possit Ecclesia. Quae enim major animum vestrum potest obtinere jucunditas, quam malorum commemorata depulsio? Gaudiis praesentibus compensate afflictia- nis incommoda: quia Deus noster, qui remedio fuit, adversis op- primi caritatem vestram noluit sed probari. Nam si transacti tem- poris mala cum praesenti, quae divina esse non ambigitur, retribu- tione compensetis, quis dubitat ampliora vos praemia consecutos, quam nocere potuisset adversitas? Et quamvis pro statu fidei catho- licae nunquam soUicitudo nostra cessaverit, tamen serenissimi prin- cipis sacris aflfatibus incitati, legatos destinare curavimus, quorum officio Deo auctore in his, quae saepe mandavimus, subsequi non dubitamus effectum. Et ideo competenter enitere, ut Ecclesiae ca- tholicae hoc praecipuum vestrae liberationis mimus possitis offerre: quatenus, repulsis omnibus quae hactenus nocuerunt, in una quam semper optavimus communionae gratulantes, Deo nostro laudes re- ferre sine cessatione possimus. — ( EPISTOLAF. 02 -JO. ^t